It Was Always You
by Harmonics
Summary: A continuation of "Misguided" and "Lightning"   Astoria starts her fifth year at Hogwarts, but nothing will ever be the same when the second wizarding war takes a turn for the worse.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! So this is a continuation of Lightning and Misguided, my other two Draco/Astoria One-shots, however this will be multi-chaptered, nothing too extensive, about 5 chapters I think. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Constructive criticism is welcome as well as reviews! 

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><p>Astoria was newly 16, and her 5th year at Hogwarts had started a few months ago. Hogwarts, a place she normally felt safe in, a place she thought she could seek out for shelter, had now become the last place she wanted to be in. There was only one thing for keeping her, one reason she begged her parents to let her come back. He needed someone with him. He needed there to be someone to help him and to keep him as sane as was possible.<p>

Astoria needed to stay and try and save what was left of Draco Malfoy. She thought back on when they had met right before the start of her 4th year. Her mother had asked him to keep an eye on her, but she realized now that it was she keeping an eye on him. At this very moment he was sitting in the Slytherin common rooms on one of the couches just staring into the fire roaring away. She was sitting at a large wooden table behind him with a book out, gazing up every now and then to watch him.

She knew that he knew she was staring at him. When he didn't think she was paying attention he would give her a side-long glance out of the corner of his eye. She wanted to reach out to him, to say something, anything that would help, but at the moment there were other students in the room. She didn't want to risk setting him off in front of other people. She didn't want to risk accidentally ruining his reputation more than it already was.

It was another twenty minutes before all of the students had made their way out of the common room to go upstairs for dinner. Daphne and Blaise had hesitated for a few moments seeing that neither Draco nor Astoria were making any move to leave with the rest of them. Of course Daphne was afraid for her sister's freedom, while Blaise did just not want to leave in case Astoria pissed Draco off and he were to miss it. Daphne had pulled him out with her though, and he had gone willingly.

When the door clicked shut, Astoria put her book down, not bothering to save her place. She wasn't even reading it anyways. When her chair scoffed against the stone floor of the common room, and Draco knew she was getting up, he took off out the door without even acknowledging her.

They wouldn't be alone with each other for another two weeks.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Astoria hadn't even realized she'd been intruding on something important until she realized she had three wands pointed at her.

She had been rushing to class, having woken up late when she rounded the corner. There in a secluded alcove of the school she happened upon Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Seamus Finnegan. They all looked up immediately and glowered at her. Sensing that they had mistaken her hurriedness as trying to spy on them, she took a step back before they took their wands out and had them pointed at her.

"Are you spying on us now?" The Weasley girl asked an icy tone in her voice.

"No!" Astoria yelped, "I'm just late for class, I didn't even know you were there."

"She's friends with Malfoy." Seamus said, egging the red head on.

"Hardly," Astoria scoffed, "I'm guilty by association now?"

"You're guilty because you're guilty." Ginny hissed out at her.

Astoria had finally had enough. She straightened her back and walked up to the group, not even bothering to pull her own wand out, "And here I thought you weren't the ones who were supposed to jump to conclusions. You know nothing about me, yet just because I'm in Slytherin you're going to automatically assume that I'm a bad person? My family has stayed out of this war. We have nothing to do with it." Astoria frowned at them.

Ginny's wand waivered, and she and the other two were lowering them when Draco rounded the corner and mistook what he saw. What he thought he saw was Astoria being threatened by the three Gryffindors, which was sort of what was happening anyways, but there was really no need for anyone to do anything rash. He thought about pulling his own wand on them, but hesitated. He didn't need to give them an incentive to hurt him, so instead he settled for getting Astoria's attention.

"Astoria!" he called stomping up to her.

Ginny let her wand fall to her side, but she, and the others, kept it gripped tight just in case.

Astoria looked behind her to see the blond marching up to them. He really did have shit timing she decided. She frowned and let out an annoyed sigh, "What do you want Draco?" she asked, trying to steel her voice and make it look like she didn't care that he was there, that she didn't care he had come to help her.

"I could ask you the same." He muttered, "Let's go." He said grabbing on to her upper arm and he started pulling her away from the group.

"Hey! That hurts let me go!" Astoria yelled at him, struggling against his hold.

When he didn't make any move to let go of her, Neville decided to open his mouth, "She said to let her go Malfoy."

Draco looked up in surprise at the 7th year Gryffindor. Since when had he ever talked back to him? He hadn't remembered him ever getting any kind of courage. He slit his eyes at the taller boy, "This is none of your business Longbottom."

"Well if you're doing something against her will it is!" Neville shouted back.

Astoria looked panicked between the two of them, if she didn't do something now, they were going to end up trying to kill each other right in the middle of the hallway, "It's okay." She said quickly, "I appreciate it, but I can handle him myself." She felt bad for having embarrassed the teen clutching her arm, but it was the only thing she could do to keep them apart at the moment.

When Neville gave her a curt nod, and lowered his wand, Astoria turned back to Draco, "Let's go. Now." She nearly growled at him.

Astoria let Draco drag her down the hallway until her found an empty classroom and dragged her in there. Astoria broke free of his clutch and sat down in one of the seats irritated, while Draco turned around, and with a quick flick of his wand, locked the door.

"What was that all about!" He yelled as soon as he turned back to face her.

"I could ask you the same bloody thing!" Astoria yelled back, "I can handle myself just fine okay? Nothing was going to happen!"

"They were pointing their wands at you Astoria, what did you do!" He yelled again.

"I didn't do anything! I told you that already! Merlin, Draco. You can't just ignore me for weeks and then suddenly swoop in and try to save me from non-existent danger!"

Draco faltered in whatever he was going to say next. He set his mouth in a frown before he said anything, "I was only trying to help."

Astoria felt her blood boil at the statement, "Only trying to help?" She asked, her voice cracking, "I don't need your help Draco. If you wanted to help, you wouldn't have ignored me every time I've tried to talk to you in the past month. If you wanted to help, you wouldn't have taken the fact that I've given up everything to try and help you for granted!" She heaved in a deep breath, "If you want to help me, then just stay away!" Astoria grabbed her bag, and left a very confused Draco Malfoy in the room.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

It was only a few days after that little incident that the students of Hogwarts had been let go for Christmas vacation. Astoria had been more than happy to be returning home to her family. She had been thinking about her fight with Draco to much in the past days, and the distraction was a much needed reprieve from her thoughts.

Her mother had met them at the station, and they had all gone home together, safe and sound. They did things that normal families did on vacations, talked about how school was going, if any of the girls had found boyfriends in which Astoria teased Daphne about Blaise Zabini. Her mother however seemed rather pleased with Daphne's choice in men. Daphne had not been as nice about the teasing though when she turned it back on Astoria.

"Well at least it's not Malfoy." She sneered at her sister.

Astoria nearly dropped the fork she was eat her fruit with, and she could hear her mother gasp from beside her. It was an unsaid rule between the mother and daughter that Astoria should stay away from Draco, especially since it seemed that his family was falling out of favor with the Voldemort. Astoria looked up at her older sister with the iciest look she could conjure before her mother turned her well-mannered fury on her.

"Astoria I think I've made it clear that I don't approve of you spending time with that boy. I know he's a very attractive thing, but that is no reason to ignore my rules."

"We're not together mum!" Astoria was quick to defend.

"You're together all the time," Daphne countered, "And alone too."

Astoria had had it with her sister by then, "Merlin Daph, I was only teasing about Blaise! You're only saying things like this because you're angry!"

If there was one thing no one could say about Daphne Greengrass, it was that she was a bad sister. Actually the elder Greengrass was fiercer when it came to protecting her sister then the Weasleys were with any of their siblings. Astoria could tell she had hurt her sister's feeling as soon as she had spoken, and she felt guilty about it already.

"I'm saying it because he is dangerous to be around Astoria!" Daphne said evenly, Astoria averted her eyes away from the elder, "Look at me!" Daphne yelled when Astoria broke eye contact, hesitantly the other girl did, "I don't know what your feelings for him are, but you are my sister and I refuse to let you get hurt because of him."

Astoria could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. She wasn't used to Daphne yelling at her like this. She felt ashamed of herself more than anything. Astoria scooted her chair back from the table, and stood to leave, "I understand. I'm sorry." She said quietly before rushing out of the dining room in fear of her mother and sister seeing her cry.

Daphne looked over to her mother, "I… I didn't mean to make her cry mum."

"It's not your fault Daphne. Your sister is just emotional right now. I'm sure she's confused about what's going on," She smiled serenely as she looked up to her eldest daughter, "Perhaps a little guidance from her sister would help?"

Daphne nodded and pushed her own chair out to follow Astoria up to her room. When she got there, she knocked softly on the door before letting herself in. She frowned when she saw Astoria face down on the canopied four poster bed in the middle of the room. Quietly, Daphne padded over to her and eased herself on the mattress beside her.

"I… I don't know what it is exactly that's going on between you and Draco, Astoria. I'm not going to pretend that I do either, but I want you to be safe. You know that right?"

Astoria brought her face up from the midnight blue comforter to look at her sister, tears staining her red face, "It's easy for you Daphne." She said, trying to keep from sobbing, "You're in love with a boy that not everybody hates." And with that the younger Greengrass crawled under her blankets, trying to escape her sister's sight.

Daphne looked down at the lump on the bed in shock, had she just said she was in love with Draco Malfoy? Pulling back the covers of the bed, Daphne crawled in next to her sister. Whenever Astoria was younger and she would be scared by the thunder storms, Daphne would always sleep with her, hopefully it worked the same now.

Astoria let out another strained cry and cuddled up to her sister who wrapped her arms around the shaken up girl. The two of them laid there until dinner.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Meanwhile, miles away Draco's Christmas vacation wasn't any better. In fact it was worse. Currently there were 20 of the most elite Death Eaters in his living room with Voldemort at the head of the table. Draco had been excluded from this meeting; he had immediately left and taken refuge up in his spacious room. Almost as soon as he'd gotten up there his thoughts had turned to the troublesome 5th year that had somehow wormed her way into his life.

He found himself comparing her to the other woman in his life. Where Pansy was annoyingly outspoken, Astoria knew when to keep her mouth shut. Where Pansy was overly touchy with him, Astoria knew when not to go near him. She was better than Pansy he realized, maybe if she had been but a year or two older; he would have noticed her sooner. Perhaps he wouldn't have had to deal with Pansy at all had Astoria been older.

It wasn't fair to the Greengrass girl though, if she had been a part of his group, he would have ruined her. Her reputation wasn't falling apart at the seams like his was. Although, she had mentioned that none of her previous friends talked to her anymore because of her association with him. It didn't matter how he tried to avoid her at all costs, he had already ruined her.

In a burst of frustration he kicked the nearest thing to him, which happened to be a chair. On its way down to the floor it caught itself on a desk lamp and that crashed on the floor as well. Only moments later, there was a soft knock at the door.

"Come in." He replied gruffly leaning down to pick the chair up off of the floor.

"Draco?" His mother shut the door behind her as she walked into his room, "I heard a noise and…" She saw the lamp and chair on the floor, "What happened?"

"Nothing," Draco murmured, "I tripped."

Narcissa frowned at her son, gently grabbing his arm; she led him over to the edge of the bed where they both sat down. Taking his hand in her own, Narcissa looked Draco over. He looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep in the past couple of days which wasn't surprising.

"Won't you tell your mother what's wrong?" She asked looking him in the eyes.

"It's nothing mother," Draco answered automatically, "Just school…" He muttered the last part.

"School," Narcissa started, "Or people at school?"

Draco tensed under her touch, and she knew she had gotten it right. Now she just needed to know who it was causing her son distress, "Draco, if there's something bad happening at school you know you can tell me right?" she asked smoothly, trying to calm him.

"It's nothing." He said again, and Narcissa didn't miss the far-off longing look that came over his face for a few seconds.

"Draco," Narcissa started calmly, "I know that the past couple of years have been hard for you. But I am your mother, and you cannot hide anything from me. I have been lenient before now, but I am demanding you tell me what has gotten into you lately."

Draco looked at his mother in surprise. He had been expecting her to just leave it at that and leave his room like she normally did. He didn't think he could remember the last time his mother had gotten angry with him. He was ashamed when he felt the familiar stinging centered on his eyes and he knew he was about to cry.

Narcissa frowned at her son and pulled him into a hug, soothingly playing with his hair as he cried into her shoulder, "Shh, Love. It's okay. It'll be okay."

"I'm useless." Draco muttered through his cries.

"No you aren't Draco." Narcissa said quietly, hugging her son closer to her.

"I've ruined her." Narcissa paused for a moment, before continuing to comfort her son.

Ruined her? Is that why he was so upset recently? Narcissa couldn't think of anyone he would be talking about, he hadn't mentioned any girls from school. Then the past year came flying back to her. He meant Astoria Greengrass. He had talked about her a lot last year, normally things about what a little girl she was. It was endearing the way he talked about her, like she was a younger sibling he never had the chance to have. Now she realized what it had been from the start, a budding infatuation.

"Draco, you've done no such thing." Narcissa cooed to her son, trying to calm him down.

"You don't even know what I'm talking about." He said in typical teenage angst fashion.

Narcissa smiled at her only child, slowly she stood, keeping her hand on his shoulder, "When you're a parent, Love, you know everything." She gave his shoulder a final pat and left the 17 year old alone in his room.

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><p>Okay. So about the lamp. I feel like wizards have things like lamps and things like that only they're enchanted to work with magic, so instead of having a sink hooked up to water, they just kind of enchant the sink to use water, and the lamp uses magic light instead them paying an electricity bill. So yeah…<p>

Reviews are loved! And I'm open to questions too!


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!  
>Here's another one :3<p>

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><p>It was two weeks later when the students returned to Hogwarts. Some of them having had great vacations, and some of them having had awful ones. If this had been the year before, the first day of classes would have been easy and designed for the students to acclimate themselves back into the learning environment. However, this was the new Hogwarts, and the students started their classes out with pop quizzes about things they learned before break had even begun.<p>

Astoria frowned at the Potion's quiz that lay in front of her on her desk. She didn't remember any of this. With an irritated sigh, Astoria grabbed her parchment and strode over to Professor Slughorn's desk.

"Sir," She said quietly, trying to obtain his attention.

"Ah, Ms. Greengrass. What can I do for you?" He asked, the smile on his face revealing the wrinkles around his mouth.

"Sir, I don't think we went over any of this in class before break." She said passing him her exam.

Slughorn frowned when she passed him the exam, "I know you didn't Ms. Greengrass. However, I am not at liberty to decide what I teach you and what I don't."

"But sir!" Astoria shouted rather loudly.

"I know Astoria, but rest assured, I'll do something to help with your grades. For now, just do the best you can, yes?"

Astoria sighed and took her paper back, "Thank you sir."

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

After three more probably failed exams, Astoria was ready to possibly throw herself off of the astronomy tower. Which unfortunately she couldn't since the Astronomy tower was blocked off from students for some reason. So Astoria had to do the next best thing, go back to the common rooms. Which ended up pissing her off more, since her sister jumped her the moment she got there.

"You look pissed. What happened to you?" Daphne asked from her seat on the couch beside Blaise.

"I think I just failed about six exams." Astoria muttered throwing herself on the couch beside her sister.

"Exams?" Daphne looked confused, "It's the first day of school, how do you have exams already?"

"That's a good question. However the better question is how did you not have exams?"

Daphne just shrugged, "I don't know. We just didn't. Maybe it's because we're 7th years?"

"I don't care what the reason is." Astoria muttered as she slouched down into the couch, "We're learning material that we shouldn't for another year."

"I could always help you study." Blaise suggested, Daphne frowned at him.

"It's okay Blaise; I wouldn't want you to fall behind."

"I could help you." Astoria lifted her head off of the back of the couch and looked behind her.

Draco was standing there. For once he wasn't wearing one of his dark colored suits, but a pair of black slacks that seemed to make his legs look longer they were, and a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, giving the younger girl a good look at his arms. Astoria scowled and reprimanded herself. Those were exactly the things she shouldn't be thinking, especially when she was still trying to be angry with the older boy.

"I would say I didn't want you to bother like Blaise, but honestly, I just don't want to spend the time with you." Astoria told him in a monotone voice, turning around so she didn't have to see him.

Daphne sank back into the couch and leaned over Blaise's lap, motioning for Astoria to do the same, making the 7th year a little uncomfortable, "What are you doing?" Daphne hissed quietly.

"What do you mean what am I doing! You're the one who told me not to be around him."

"That was before I knew you liked him!" Daphne commented, to which Blaise raised his eyebrows.

Astoria shot him a look, "What does it matter?"

"Let him tutor you!" Daphne hissed again, "He's not dumb Astoria. This way you can spend time with him, but it'll be in a teacher/student way. You won't have to worry about feelings or any of that shit."

Astoria gave her sister a deadpanned look, "He's not actually my teacher Daph."

Daphne glared at her, "Whatever, Draco you really wouldn't mind?" Daphne asked sitting up to look at the blond boy who had an irritated look on his face.

"I already agreed to help her didn't I?"

"Well good, that's settled then! Have fun studying Astoria!" Daphne laughed as she dragged Blaise away to Merlin knows where.

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"I don't get any of this!" Astoria moaned as she let her face fall into the book on the table in the Slytherin's study nook.

"What don't you get?" Draco asked, an identical copy of the potion's text book opened in front of him.

"Listen, you may be a master when it comes to this class, but some of us actually hate Potions and don't understand it okay." Astoria gave him an angry look.

"I've been helping you study for a month Greengrass, how is it that you don't understand this?"

Astoria just crossed her arms and huffed loudly, a pout forming on her lips.

"Oh that's real mature Astoria. Instead of calming down and trying, you're just going to act like a first year."

"Why are you even helping me to begin with!" She asked, a sudden burst of anger making itself known.

Draco was taken by surprise. Why was he helping her? It wasn't like he already had enough on his plate as it was. He had his own classes to worry about, he had his life to worry about, and the life of his family at that. He didn't have time to worry about the girl sitting across the table from him.

"I don't know." He said finally.

Astoria looked confused, "What?"

"I said I don't know!" Draco yelled getting out of his chair and stomping over to the window next to the table.

Astoria took a moment to look him over. He was a lot thinner now then he used to be, his skin was always light, but now it was a sickly pale color, his eyes had bags under them, and he all around looked awful to her eyes.

"Why does the green Gillyweed work, but not the brown?" Astoria asked.

"What?" Draco looked back at her confused.

"For this potion, it says to use it, but it doesn't say why it changes the composition entirely. Why does the color matter so much?"

Draco's shoulders seemed to lose their tense posture as he walked back to the table. He dragged his chair over so that it was right beside Astoria's. Grabbing her book, notebook, and quill he made a list of the different qualities the weeds possessed.

"The green has higher oxygen levels then the brown does, so if you were to use the brown variety for a potion needing the green, you would screw the whole thing up." Draco calmly explained.

Astoria nodded leaning over to watch as he wrote in her notebook. The first thing she noticed was that his handwriting was awfully neat for a boy's. It was long and elegant, much like her own handwriting. The second thing she noticed was that Draco smelled good. Not just good, but amazing. Like freshly cleaned cotton with the familiar smell of Hogwarts dungeons.

Astoria found herself getting closer to the older boy, and she immediately regretted it. She wasn't supposed to be trying to get closer. Daphne and she had agreed that this was so she could spend time with him without getting hurt, and she was going to ruin it. She could feel her heart start to race as her thick brown curls fell over his shoulder.

Draco had stopped writing, "Do you understand now?" He asked turning to look at her, surprised that she had gotten to close.

Astoria could see something flash in his eyes but she couldn't determine what it was. She didn't want to look like she was trying to creep on him, so as calmly as she could manage she nodded, "Yes I understand perfectly, thank you."

Draco didn't say anything; instead he brought a hand up to touch the curls that had fallen over his shoulder. And then brush them off before he stood up and left the room. Astoria frowned, well that was anti-climactic.

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><p>As always, questions are welcome<p>

As are reviews!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out! I've been so busy lately with Fair and family related things recently I haven't seemed to have time to do much writing. However, updates should be up a lot faster now that I'm in the groove of things again. On an unrelated note, I move into my dorm next Friday! Yay for finally being a college student! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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><p>Time passed like it normally did at Hogwarts. There were rumors surrounding Harry and his friends however that were circulating more than they used to. Apparently someone had spotted them somewhere. Astoria tried not to pay any mind to them; she wasn't going to get her hopes up that Harry was actually succeeding in whatever quest he was on.<p>

Surprisingly, Astoria had been getting top marks in her classes, but she suspected a certain blond haired boy had something to do with it. It was only a week until their next break when Astoria had gotten hurt.

They were in their Defense against the Dark Arts class, and again it seemed like they weren't going to do anything special that day. Until Carrow had brought in a line of first years and Astoria's blood went cold. She had heard they were doing this with the 6th and 7th years, but she never thought they would go as young as them.

She could feel herself panicking. What would happen if they asked her to do something? She was in a joint class with Gryffindors, so she was sure Carrow would make an example out of the Slytherins to piss them off. This was what ended up happening of course when the first Gryffindor refused to perform a Cruciatus curse on one of the punished first years.

Amycus looked around the side of the room the Slytherins were sitting in, and not surprisingly his eyes landed on Astoria. Perhaps it was him spiting her family who had been lucky enough to be purebloods and stay out of the war so far, or perhaps it was because she made it known that she didn't care for either of the Carrows.

"Astoria, why don't you try it out?"

"I'd rather not professor." Astoria tried to sound as respectful as she could.

"Oh is that so?" Amycus smiled at her, "I'll take it that you are refusing to do what a teacher has told you," his smile widening, "And that calls for punishment as well, correct?"

"Sir, please!" was all Astoria could get out before she felt the effects of the curse take over her body.

It was excruciating. She had never felt anything like it before. All she knew now was pain and darkness. She could feel herself fall out of her chair and hit the floor underneath her. It was cold, and helped only a small fraction with the heat her body was consumed with. When she didn't cry out, she could feel the curse grow stronger and she could hear her own shriek fill the classroom.

She wasn't sure how much longer she was being 'punished' when the doors to the classroom flew open and the pain diminished, but it didn't stop. Astoria could feel herself able to breathe again, and she could hear muffled yelling as well. Before she knew it there was another person close to her, whispering to her.

"Come now, let's get you to the infirmary."

Astoria let out a choked sob as she felt herself being picked up off of the floor. Her whole body felt like it was on fire. There wasn't anything to sooth her burned skin or the pain she was in at the moment. All she knew was that she was being carried out of the classroom, and even the touch of someone else was putting her in immense amounts of pain. She could feel her tears running down her face at a rapid pace.

She wasn't sure how much longer it had been before they stopped, but she could feel herself being laid down on a bed. Her shirt was pulled aside as well as her robes. Something cold and wet was being laid over her chest while from her other side she could hear someone saying things in a soothing tone.

Opening her eyes for the first time since she had hit the floor she could see Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall on either side of the bed, "It hurts." She managed to get past her lips.

"I know it does." McGonagall said quietly, "Everything will be okay." Her eyes were watery, and Astoria was sure she was feeling as if she had failed her students once more.

Madam Pomfrey had told her she would spend the night there just in case, but should be free to leave in the morning. It was much later that night when Astoria had gotten her first visitor other than her sister and Blaise. Madame Pomfrey had already retired to bed, and she was sure that the student curfew had already come and gone, but yet there was the familiar tap of school shoes that woke her up.

"Whose there?" She called out, rather panicked.

"Calm down Greengrass it's just me." Astoria could feel herself relax at the familiar voice.

"Draco?" she asked, and he walked around the curtain to show himself.

"What happened to you?" He asked sounding a little irritable.

"I've just been tortured and you're the one who sounds like he's being inconvenienced?" Astoria scoffed.

"Tortured?" The surprise in his voice was evident.

"Didn't Daphne tell you?" Astoria murmured.

"No she failed to mention that," Draco told her as he pulled up a chair to her bedside, "I had asked her where you went since you missed our study session and she just told me you had gotten hurt."

Astoria wanted to roll her eyes, of course the one time it mattered her sister didn't over exaggerate, "They decided it was a good time to start teaching the 5th years one of the unforgivable curses. Apparently refusing to do so results in having it tested on you instead."

Draco said nothing, but frowned. After a few moments he spoke up, "Why didn't you just do what they said?"

"And torture a poor first year that's done nothing wrong?" Astoria asked looking at him with wide eyes, "I'd be no better than the Carrows then."

Draco didn't agree or disagree with her, nor did he speak again before leaving about twenty minutes later, "I'll see you tomorrow then." But it fell on deaf ears as Astoria was already asleep.

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Easter break had come and gone, and talk of Harry Potter had been rushing around the school in hushed tones. Of course so had hushed rumors of a certain 7th year Slytherin as well.

Astoria had noticed the change in Draco immediately. Of course he had looked bad from the beginning of the year, but now he looked absolutely shocking. Astoria had taken the first chance they had alone together, which ended up being another study session, to get to the bottom of his behavior.

"What happened to you over break?" Astoria asked as soon as Draco had closed the door on the study room.

Draco looked at her puzzled, "Want to know how my vacation went Greengrass?" He tried teasing her, but it came out as a legitimate question.

"Well when you look like shit of course I do."

Draco frowned in disapproval at her comment and roughly sat himself in the chair across from her, taking his wand out of his pocket and laying it next to hers as he always did before they studied. Except this time, and she wasn't sure if she was meant to notice it, it wasn't his wand. Draco had started to open a copy of Astoria's Transfiguration text book when she stopped him.

"Draco, where is your wand?"

He looked genuinely surprised that she had asked him, so she figured she wasn't meant to realize that it wasn't his wand that he had laid out on the table, "Mine was broken, and my mother lent me hers." He said tersely, and Astoria knew he was lying, which she told him, "Just leave it alone Greengrass it's none of your business."

This was when Astoria remembered one of the rumors going around, and realized it wasn't a rumor. Harry and his friends had been in Malfoy manner. Harry and his friends had stolen something from them and escaped.

"It was stolen wasn't it?" Astoria asked quietly, "Someone stole your wand… maybe someone named Harry?"

Draco looked up at her, his eyes were wild with astonishment at first before they narrowed in anger, "You can't leave anything alone can you Greengrass?" He snarled, pushing the books aside and leaning over the table to grab a fistful of her uniform shirt, "I told you to leave it alone but you refuse." He shoved her back into her chair as he leaned back in his.

"You're mistaking my actually caring about you for blatant ignorance Draco. I'm not trying to upset you, and don't you ever touch me like that again." She added angrily, only to realize that she had admitted to caring for the older boy.

"You think you care about me?" Draco asked his voice darker than Astoria had ever heard it, "You know nothing about me! You aren't my family and you aren't even a friend!"

"I'm the only friend you have left!" Astoria yelled pushing her chair back, causing it to tip over and fall to the ground.

Draco stood stock still with slightly widened eyes as he looked at the girl who had burst into an angry yell, "Where are Crabbe and Goyle right now Draco?" Astoria yelled back at him, "Or Pansy, where is she?" When he didn't respond she continued, "I have been trying to glue myself to your side for the past two years because you have no one left! Everyone here at this school hates you! Even some of the Slytherins! And your friends? They're afraid of their own awful reputations to be seen with you anymore!"

"Then why are you here Astoria! Why are you destroying your reputation? Please do tell me what it is about me you find so fascinating that you would willingly spend time with me? Am I some kind of amusement to you? Do you get a kick out of spending time with the fallen Malfoy boy so you can go laugh about me behind my back like everyone else?"

"I spend time with you because I want to! And believe it or not I enjoy your company most days!" Astoria shouted rushing up to him and pushing him squarely in the chest, "You are a pigheaded," push, "arrogant," push, "selfish," push, "ASSHAT!" Astoria let her arms fly out to try and push him again, but he grabbed on to them before she could shove him.

Astoria did the next best thing she could think of and let the heel of her foot smash into his own as hard as she could. Draco called out in surprise and some pain as it connected his own foot, "Astoria, stop it!" he yelled.

Astoria refused though and ripped one hand out to beat uselessly at his chest. Draco was going to try and hold her back again but realized her punches were getting halfhearted and they didn't hurt at all anymore. She stopped altogether and let her hand ball into the fabric of his shirt as the other was still being held. She dropped her head, and slowly her shoulders began to shake. If Draco had known any better he would have thought she was…

"Astoria, are you crying?" he asked a little incredulously and it came out rather harsh.

"I hate you." She muttered as she pressed her forehead to his shoulder and he subconsciously let go of her wrist and wrapped the one arm around her waist to pull her closer to him.

"I know." He whispered into her hair, "Everyone does."

`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.`.

Astoria wasn't sure how much time had passed since the day in the study nook, but her and Draco had been avoiding each other for quite some time. This is how she found herself in the library one day after classes instead of in the Slytherin study nook. She had to admit, she was a lot more lost when she tried to decipher Transfiguration homework on her own then when Draco was there to help her. Letting out an angry huff Astoria decided it was time to give up, so instead she laid her head on the text book and hopped her brain would absorb some of the information.

"Astoria?"

Astoria's head shot up from the text book it was laying on. Standing awkwardly in front of her was Ginny Weasley. She looked a little nervous, which Astoria chalked up to not wanting to be seen with a Slytherin.

"Ginny," Astoria nodded, "What can I do for you?" She asked politely.

As soon as Astoria had given the green light for Ginny to ask her, the Weasley had taken out a chair from the table opposite of the 5th year, "I need to ask you something." She said quietly leaning over the table so she could whisper.

Astoria was confused, well confused and a little shocked. She wasn't sure what it was the Weasley girl could possibly find out from her… unless it was something about the Death Eaters, "Listen," Astoria started, "My family has no connection to this whole war so if you're trying to get information out of me it won't work."

"It's not that." Ginny said quickly afraid the other girl would get offended and leave, "It's about Draco Malfoy."

Astoria tensed up, "I'm not answering any questions about him either."

"It's about his home Astoria. I know you've heard the rumors. That Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in their house over Easter break. I need to know if it's true."

Astoria paused. She wanted to know about the trio, "Why do you think I would know that?"

"You're um… _with him_ aren't you?" Ginny asked nervously like she was afraid to say the wrong thing.

"Merlin, no!" Astoria nearly shouted.

Ginny looked a little surprised by the fact, "I'm sorry, I just assumed that since the two of you were together all the time that you would have… I'm sorry." She said again, looking a little frustrated, like Astoria wouldn't tell her now that she had accused her of dating the older boy.

"No we…" Astoria wasn't sure what they were, were they even friends anymore? Had they ever been friends? According to Draco they hadn't, but she didn't know anybody who would let her get away with saying and doing half the things she did if she wasn't their friend.

Ginny must have picked up on her unspoken feelings because she smiled gently, "Harry is everything to me, Astoria. I know you feel the same way about him," she looked like she wanted to add something snide but she didn't, "If Draco was in the same position as Harry was, how would you feel?"

Astoria thought about it. If Draco had been gone and she was up countless nights worrying about him? Not that she wasn't already, but at least she saw him every day. What if he was being hunted by almost everyone, trying to be killed every day, and she never heard any news about him. Worse yet, what if she actually was his girlfriend like Ginny was Harry's.

"He was there." She said quietly, "But from what I know from Draco, and it's very little, he got out okay. Everyone did."

Ginny's face lit up with happiness. The girl looked like she was about to start dancing right there in the library. She reached across the table and grabbed Astoria's hands in her own, "Thank you." She said before getting up from the table, before she had gotten out of ear shot, Astoria stopped her.

"We're not all bad you know."

Ginny seemed to understand what she was talking about, and gave the Slytherin girl a short nod before leaving the library in a much better mood then how she had entered it.

* * *

><p>I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I realize there are a lot of things that happen in here that may not be what you would expect, but I have my reasons for adding everything that I do. So if something confused you, don't hesitate to ask me to explain!<p>

Reviews would be lovely~


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